50 Fun Facts About Book of Proverbs

Which word completes Proverbs 1:7, 'The fear of the LORD is the beginning of ___', where 9:10 says 'wisdom'?

Knowledge is the word in the book's motto verse, which goes straight on to say that fools despise wisdom and instruction. The better-known 'beginning of wisdom' wording is Proverbs 9:10.

Proverbs 11:29 says he that troubleth his own house shall inherit what, the title of a play about the Scopes trial?

The wind is the troubler's inheritance, and in Inherit the Wind the prosecutor Brady hurls the verse at a preacher who is condemning the accused teacher from the pulpit.

How many pillars has Wisdom 'hewn out' in Proverbs 9, a number T. E. Lawrence borrowed for his book title?

Seven pillars hold up the house Wisdom builds at the start of Proverbs 9, before she sends her maidens out to invite the simple to her feast. T. E. Lawrence took Seven Pillars of Wisdom from the verse.

Which creature does Proverbs 6 tell the sluggard to 'go to' and consider, since she works with no overseer or ruler?

The ant 'provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest' with nobody in charge, which is why the sluggard is sent to study her ways.

A fair woman without discretion is likened in Proverbs 11 to a jewel of gold in which animal's snout?

A pig is the 'swine' of the King James wording, and its gold nose-ring stands for good looks wasted on a woman with no judgement. The same chapter promises that 'the liberal soul shall be made fat'.

How many proverbs did Solomon speak, according to 1 Kings 4, alongside 'a thousand and five' songs?

3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs are Solomon's tally in 1 Kings, which also has him lecturing on everything from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall.

Who taught King Lemuel the 'prophecy' that opens Proverbs 31, warning him that wine is 'not for kings'?

His mother is the teacher named in the chapter's first verse, and her lesson moves from the dangers of women and wine to a command to 'open thy mouth for the dumb' and plead the cause of the poor.

'Who can find a virtuous woman?' asks Proverbs 31:10; her price is said to be 'far above' what?

Rubies are the benchmark, the same gem that Proverbs 3 and 8 rank below wisdom itself. The Hebrew 'eshet chayil' behind 'virtuous woman' is closer to 'woman of valour'.

To what does a fool return in Proverbs 26:11, as a dog returns to its vomit, a line 2 Peter quotes?

His folly is where the fool goes back, and 2 Peter 2:22 pairs the dog with 'the sow that was washed' returning to the mire, aimed at converts who slide back into old ways.

Which King James verb completes Proverbs 22:6: a child trained 'in the way he should go' will not ___ 'from it'?

Depart is the verb, and the verse is one of the most quoted in Christian parenting, read by some as a guarantee and by others as a rule of thumb. It sits among the 'proverbs of Solomon' collected in chapters 10 to 22.

What does 'a soft answer' turn away in Proverbs 15:1, whose second half says 'grievous words stir up anger'?

Wrath is turned away by the soft answer while grievous words do the opposite; the same chapter says 'the eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good'.

Which verb completes Proverbs 29:18, 'Where there is no vision, the people ___', a favourite of leadership speeches?

Perish is the King James verb, though the Hebrew is closer to 'cast off restraint', and the verse ends 'but he that keepeth the law, happy is he'.

Proverbs 17:22 says a merry heart 'doeth good like' what, while 'a broken spirit drieth the bones'?

A medicine is the comparison, which is why 'laughter is the best medicine' gets pinned on the Bible even though no verse says it. The same chapter says a friend 'loveth at all times'.

'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' says Proverbs 13:12, 'but when the desire cometh, it is' what?

A tree of life is the image, which Proverbs also applies to wisdom in chapter 3, 'to them that lay hold upon her', and to 'the fruit of the righteous' in chapter 11.

In Proverbs 31:28 the virtuous woman's children 'arise up' and call her what, while her husband 'praiseth her'?

Blessed is the children's word, and the poem ends by letting her own works praise her 'in the gates'; this portrait is what the 'Proverbs 31 woman' of Christian womanhood books is built on.

Proverbs 3:5 tells readers to trust in the LORD 'with all thine heart' and 'lean not unto thine own' what?

Understanding is what the verse says not to lean on, and the next line promises that whoever acknowledges God 'in all thy ways' will have his paths directed. The pair is among the best-known lines in the book.

'The wicked flee when no man pursueth,' says Proverbs 28:1, 'but the righteous are bold as' which animal?

A lion is the righteous man's model, the animal Proverbs 30 later calls 'strongest among beasts' that 'turneth not away for any'. The slothful man, says chapter 26, claims there is one in the streets as an excuse to stay home.

Proverbs 22:1 says a good name is 'rather to be chosen' than what, and loving favour 'rather than silver and gold'?

Great riches lose to a good name in the verse that opens a chapter which also holds 'train up a child' and the warning to 'remove not the ancient landmark'.

Proverbs 22:7 says 'the rich ruleth over the poor', and the borrower is servant to whom?

The lender owns the borrower in this verse, a favourite of modern debt-free preachers; Proverbs also warns repeatedly that whoever is surety for a stranger 'shall smart for it'.

Proverbs 27:1 says 'boast not thyself of' what, 'for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth'?

Tomorrow is off limits for boasting, and the very next verse keeps the theme of humility: 'Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips'.

Proverbs 16:32 ranks the slow to anger above the mighty, and 'he that ruleth his spirit' above him that taketh what?

A city is the conquest outranked by self-command, a verse that turns the usual praise of conquest on its head. Chapter 16 also says 'the lot is cast into the lap' but the outcome is the LORD's.

Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend 'that sticketh closer than' whom, a line Christians often apply to Jesus?

A brother is the comparison, and the first half, 'a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly', is often quoted alone; chapter 17 adds that 'a brother is born for adversity'.

What holds 'the power' of death and life in Proverbs 18:21, where 'they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof'?

The tongue holds that power, and the book keeps circling back to speech: the same chapter says 'a fool's mouth is his destruction' and that a man's belly is filled by 'the fruit of his mouth'.

What 'exalteth a nation' in Proverbs 14:34, whose second half warns that 'sin is a reproach to any people'?

Righteousness is what lifts a nation, according to a verse beloved of American civil religion, and chapter 14 also says that 'he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker'.

Which metal sharpens itself in Proverbs 27:17, the image for how a man 'sharpeneth the countenance of his friend'?

Iron sharpeneth iron, a line that has become shorthand for friends who challenge each other, and the same chapter also rates 'open rebuke' above 'secret love'.

Proverbs 31:30 says 'favour is deceitful' and what 'is vain', before praising 'a woman that feareth the LORD'?

Beauty is vain in the King James wording, 'fleeting' in the NIV, and the line is the moral of the whole 'virtuous woman' poem, placed just before its closing call to 'give her of the fruit of her hands'.

'Wine is a mocker,' says Proverbs 20:1, 'strong drink is' what, 'and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise'?

Raging is the King James adjective, 'a brawler' in modern versions, and the chapter's other famous line is that divers weights are 'an abomination unto the LORD'.

Proverbs 31's virtuous woman 'considereth a field, and buyeth it', then plants what 'with the fruit of her hands'?

A vineyard is what she plants, one line in a portrait of a woman who trades in linen and girdles, rises 'while it is yet night' and keeps her candle burning after dark.

Whose 'words' fill Proverbs 30, the chapter confessing 'I am more brutish than any man' that is not Solomon's?

Agur son of Jakeh is the speaker, addressing Ithiel and Ucal, and his chapter is built on numbered lists of 'three things... yea, four'. The closing chapter then belongs to King Lemuel.

What is the fourth thing 'too wonderful' for Proverbs 30, listed after an eagle, a serpent on a rock and a ship?

A man with a maid completes the list of four things the speaker says he 'know[s] not', and it is followed at once by the adulterous woman who 'wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness'.

Which creature 'taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces', among Proverbs 30's small but wise things?

The spider is the King James reading, where modern versions have a lizard; its companions in the list include the conies who build 'in the rocks' and the locusts who have no king, 'yet go they forth all of them by bands'.

Which creature 'hath two daughters, crying, Give, give', opening Proverbs 30's list of things never satisfied?

The leech, 'horseleach' in the King James spelling, leads into the grave, the barren womb, the parched earth and fire as the four things that never say 'It is enough'.

Which king of Judah's men 'copied out' the Solomon proverbs of chapters 25 to 29, per the heading of Proverbs 25?

Hezekiah's scribes are the only editors the book names, and their collection includes the advice to eat honey only 'so much as is sufficient' and 'a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver'.

Which ancient civilisation produced the Instruction of Amenemope, a text closely paralleled by Proverbs 22–24?

Egypt is where Amenemope's thirty chapters of advice were written, and since Adolf Erman's 1924 study most scholars hold that the Hebrew passage borrowed from the Egyptian text, not the other way round.

Where is it 'better to dwell' than 'with a brawling woman in a wide house', a line Proverbs prints twice?

A corner of the housetop wins in Proverbs 21:9 and again, almost word for word, in 25:24; 21:19 offers the wilderness as the alternative to 'a contentious and an angry woman'.

Proverbs 26:14 likens the slothful man turning on his bed to what turning 'upon his hinges'?

A door on its hinges is the picture of the sluggard rolling over, one of a run of sloth jokes in which he also hides his hand in his bosom and finds it too much trouble 'to bring it again to his mouth'.

What 'shall come as one that travelleth' after 'a little sleep, a little slumber', warns Proverbs 6?

Poverty arrives like a traveller and want 'as an armed man', a warning the book repeats word for word in chapter 24 after a walk past a sluggard's field 'grown over with thorns'.

What ends Proverbs 6's list of things the LORD hates, coming right after 'a false witness that speaketh lies'?

Sowing discord among brethren closes the list of what the LORD hates, which also takes in a proud look, hands that shed innocent blood and 'an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations'.

What does the Septuagint call Proverbs' personified Wisdom, a Greek name Constantinople's famous basilica bears?

Sophia is the Septuagint's word for Wisdom, and Christian theology took over the Old Testament figure as Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, the dedication of Justinian's basilica consecrated in 537.

'Bread of deceit is sweet to a man,' says Proverbs 20:17, 'but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with' what?

Gravel is what the cheat ends up chewing, and the same chapter catches the haggler too: 'It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth'.

What colour clothes the virtuous woman's whole household in Proverbs 31, so she 'is not afraid of the snow'?

Scarlet is the household's colour, while the woman herself wears 'silk and purple', makes 'coverings of tapestry' and sells fine linen and girdles to the merchants.

What is 'the glory of God' in Proverbs 25:2, where 'the honour of kings is to search out a matter'?

To conceal a thing is God's glory, in a pairing that makes royal inquiry the mirror of divine secrecy; the next verse adds that 'the heart of kings is unsearchable'.

How many verses make up the 'virtuous woman' acrostic that ends Proverbs 31, one verse per Hebrew letter?

22 verses, from 31:10 to 31:31, each begin with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, making it one of thirteen such acrostic poems in the Bible; 'eshet chayil', its opening words, is the poem's Jewish name.

Proverbs 31's 'Eshet Chayil' is sung at the meal of which Jewish observance, between Shalom Aleichem and Kiddush?

Shabbat dinner on Friday night is when the poem is customarily sung at the table, a weekly tribute to the 'woman of valour' that sits between a hymn welcoming the angels and the blessing over wine.

Which dog breed does the Authorized Version put in Proverbs 30's list of things 'comely in going', beside a he-goat?

A greyhound is how the 1611 translators handled an obscure Hebrew phrase that the NIV turns into 'a strutting rooster'; the list ends with 'a king, against whom there is no rising up'.

Which heresy cited Proverbs 8:22, Wisdom's 'the LORD possessed me in the beginning', to call the Son a creature?

Arianism read Wisdom's 'created' as proof that the Son was a creature, and the opponents who won at Nicaea insisted the Hebrew meant 'begot', hence the creed's 'begotten, not made'.

How many sayings make up the 'proverbs of Solomon' collection that runs from Proverbs 10:1 to 22:16?

375 sayings fill the book's longest collection, whose first part sets the wise man against the fool and whose second turns to wise and foolish speech; it is one of six units the anthology stitches together.

Who wrote As a Man Thinketh, the self-help classic titled from Proverbs 23:7, 'as he thinketh in his heart'?

James Allen published the essay in 1903 as a study of 'the power of thought', and its borrowed title helped make the Proverbs line a founding text of the self-help movement.

What does Proverbs 18:10 call 'the name of the LORD', into which the just 'runneth' and is safe?

A strong tower is the image, and the very next verse mocks the rich man whose wealth is 'as an high wall in his own conceit'.

'Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,' says Proverbs 15:17, than what 'and hatred therewith'?

A stalled ox, an animal fattened in its stall, is the feast that loses to vegetables eaten in peace; the verse before it prefers 'little with the fear of the LORD' to treasure 'and trouble therewith'.